When you’re enjoying your vacation, the last thing you want is to worry about being hacked or being vulnerable to potential online attacks. Learn more about how you can maximize your security while traveling during the holidays so you can remain worry-free and enjoy your trip!

Be Careful with your Boarding Pass

Of course you’re careful with your boarding pass before you get on the flight, but what do you do with it once you’ve landed? Consider saving it to dispose of properly in either a shredder, or to rip it up completely. There is a tremendous amount of personal information available on your boarding pass and on the QR code located on it. Your airplane boarding pass contains your phone number, your frequent flyer number, future travel plans, and much more personal information. If you want to see what private details are available from your boarding pass, scan the QR code of your boarding pass and see for yourself.

Watch out for Public WiFi

Be sure that the wifi settings on your device do not automatically connect to public wifi networks. You should also remove previously remembered hotspots and ensure that you’re only connected if you want to be. Public wifi networks can inadvertently compromise your credentials, or leave your device vulnerable to being hacked since it’s not secure. You could also use a VPN if using public wifi is a must for your vacation.

Be Cautious on Social Media

It’s important not to overshare on social media about where you’re going and when you’ll be away. If people know you’re traveling, then they’ll know you’re not at home. Consider waiting to post photos from your trip until after you’re already back at home. Even consider turning off geo-tracking on your device so that your location wouldn’t be discovered by potential attackers.

Protect your Passwords

You have to be particularly careful while on vacation because if you only realize your information has been compromised once you get home, it might be too late. Be sure to choose strong passwords and to have different passwords to help to protect all your accounts. While you’re traveling, it’s also a good idea to activate two-factor authentication to ensure that only you can access your accounts. If you need help remembering your passwords, it could be a good idea to use a password manager

Back Up Before you Board

Automatic backups make it easy, but if this isn’t something you’re sold on, you can manually back up or upload to a cloud service, such as Dropbox, or Google Drive instead. Backing up your files is the best way to ensure that you won’t lose any of your information, photos, documents and personal data if a device was stolen or infected by malware

Pack your Devices in the Right Place

If you’re traveling with your devices, it’s important to keep them on you, in your front pockets, and always within arm’s reach and in sight. Travelers can often get distracted by feelings of being disoriented and it leaves tourists more vulnerable to being targets of theft. Part of securing your devices and ensuring no one can hack into your accounts is to also making sure they can’t get their hands on the physical device. Also, it’s important to make sure that your device has a passcode on it, to ensure that if it does get in the wrong hands, that your personal information is still safe.

You work hard all year long and we hope you enjoy your holiday travels. With these tips, we hope that you stay safe and enjoy a peaceful and secure holiday season!